Boris Becker - Play To Win: How I Reached the Wimbledon Hall of Fame

Full transcript: Boris Becker on London Real

3:17 This is London Real. I am Brian Rose. My guest today is Boris Becker, the former world number one tennis player, Olympic gold medalist, coach and commentator. At 17 you became the youngest Wimbledon champion in history, a record you hold to this day, and over a 16-year playing career you won six Grand Slam titles.

3:38 As a coach you led Novak Djokovic back to the top of world rankings in 2014, and he went on to hold all four Grand Slam titles simultaneously. You now commentate on tennis around the world that have been part of the BBC’s Wimbledon coverage since 2003 Boris, welcome to London Real. Thank you very much. I could have listened to a lot longer. Is it nice to leave the flowers in the morning?

4:00 Yeah, I hear that. As you get older it’s kind of nice to think about kind of your career and the things you’ve accomplished. Is that true? Does it get sweeter with time? I know, sometimes when you’re in the middle of it you forget that you know, you did win a few things, you know, as a player and as a coach, because you always think about the next tournament or the next goal or the next match, but only when you look back a little bit, and then that’s why I enjoyed your introduction.

4:28 Is there the thing I did a few things to? Then is nobody’s time before. And it’s good to good to hear that sometime, right? But when you’re in that you’re always thinking about the next tournament. I’ve got to keep my number one ranking.

4:39 Wimbledon’s coming up. Australian is coming up. New York’s coming up. I mean, I guess you have to live in that kind of moment of trying to make yourself better all the time. Yeah, it’s a very intense lifestyle because you only rate it as good as your last match.

4:54 In a way it doesn’t matter how many you’ve won before and who knows what’s going to happen in the future, so so the last match is important, and once that’s over it’s the next match. And even after women finally win it there’s a great ceremony afterwards and there’s a Champions dinner, and everybody puts on a tuxedo, but you think on the Monday morning. Okay, after, it may be having a cup of coffee. Okay, what’s next, and and you know, the lifespan of an athlete is not that long if it’s, if it’s very successful and healthy it’s ten years.

5:28 It’s not that long, so every year it’s important. Hmm, tell me about you. You live in England now full-time why did you make that choice? I mean, you’ve lived all around the world, you’re from Germany. Yeah, why?

5:42 Yeah, people ask me why I live here. Yeah, but why? Why you? I friends call me London up by now. I’ve been here for a few years now.

5:50 I was in Switzerland before, and I made, had a Sunday morning breakfast with all my kids. I have, you know, various different kids from different place, for kids tonight, and I said, listen, what you all would like me to call home? And I said, the only thing it has to be, it has to be Europe now. Our family language is English. It’s not German.

6:17 No, it’s not, friends, not Spanish and so everybody pretty much within a minute said London, and London was always close to my heart because I am in a loved one button it was my special place, and I, you know, I’ve got friends in London, and my English is okay. I can, I can manage. So London was a natural choice for everybody to say, yeah, call this Teeter you know back home. And that was a thought that many years ago, and and I feel respected in London. I can go under the radar in London.

6:51 I like the football, you know. I like the politics of it. I like the fact that you, within an hour, you’re in Berlin, you’re in Rome, in Paris, you’re in, in anyway, in Europe within two hours, and even if you fly to Miami, it’s just, you know, over all the water. At six hours in New York is closed, so I’ve called this – you know, the capital of the world for many years. Mm-hmm.

7:16 And like you said, you can fly under the radar which you can’t necessarily do in Germany. No, and it’s cosmopolitan enough but not too crazy like New York City. Yeah, and you’ve always had a place for this in your heart. Yeah. I like, I like what, what particular London stands for, you know?

7:33 It’s really open-minded, it doesn’t matter what color you have and what God you believe in, and there’s a section for everybody here and everybody gets along. Now, at the time, is there changing a little bit? I think Brexit affects the situation The political landscape is changing. We live in uncertain times I’m foreigner here. I have a German passport only, so we, you know, we watch the news more than ever before obviously there’s now, they wanna get into the Brexit discussion, but now there’s a delay until October the 31st for a final decision, you know, leaving or not.

8:12 And in fact people like me, because, you know, things would be different Mmm. Do you think ultimately all the Europeans will still be able to live here and all of that will still be Okay, well I hope so. I honestly, I not talk to my friends, and for the first time ever we think if London’s still the place for us in the future. Do we have to, you know, change our homes and it’s something you don’t want to do, because, you know, you only have one home, right?

8:38 Obviously I wasn’t born here. I was born in Germany, but I’ve adopted to the London lifestyle a lot, and it’s, you know, for the first time, you know, a long long time, we have to think about, you know, what what the future will bring for us. Yeah, yeah. Well, I hope we figure all this out, because I think it’s city I’m obviously an American, but I’m here. I have my British passport.

8:58 Oh, you have a perspective. Yeah, yeah, I just got that a long time ago, just in case. I’m an engineer by training, so we do the fail-safes, but yeah, again open-minded. It’s said there’s been a trading city, and I think trading cities traditionally always had different people coming in. No, you have to be open-minded to do business, and I agree it’s a great town.

9:16 I was one of, you could take me back to where you grew up. And as a point of reference, my mom took me on the American European vacation in the eighties, and so we went to Germany. I remember going to Dusseldorf and Aachen and then Munich, saw the new issue on Stein. Yeah, we also took a train through East Germany into Berlin and we went to East Berlin, and I could never forget that, even as a young man. And I was wondering if you could tell me what it was like to grow up in Germany, in West Germany, in the 70s and 80s things that we might not even think about, or a part of your childhood, or a part of the culture.

9:51 What was it like? It was a good old days when you, when you mention the West German, if I talked to, you know, my kids and some of my younger friends and I say, well, I’m from Leimen, you know, close to Heidelberg, in West Germany. On purpose of what do you mean West Germany? It was there a thing called West Germany? I said, well, for a long time, you know, the the Arwen, the Iron Curtain was right through Germany, through Berlin, through Berlin was divided at East Berlin and West Berlin, and now, it’s obviously our capital, but, you know, 15 years ago, not that long ago, it was divided, and they can’t believe that the world really changed win over my taste for the better in only 15 years ago, and it’s actually longer, it’s 25 years ago, and it was different in the sense that you felt very safe.

10:46 It was wealthy even then, you know. You could walk the streets at night again. it was before the internet, before mobile phones. Life was very different. But I, you know, come from a very nice family, and I was to do sports, you know, obviously it’s cool, and there were no restrictions really to my dreams, and in a party.

11:14 The reason why I became successful later, because I wasn’t allowed to dream even when I was 10, 12 years old. And is that something that your parents allowed you, or was that even the West German culture? To where both I think, I think it was cannot we, we cannot start the discussion of was it you, or was it a choice you were given? We mentioned early on, that I won’t remember, at 17 where I was giving the choice to buy tennis that was four, five years old, because that was brought up in an environment that was safe and Altena, a little bit of money.

11:47 Now, if You, if you’re born and raised in the wrong town, in the wrong country, you would not win Wimbledon 70, not because you’re good enough, but because you were brought up in the wrong environment, for example not your fault. So given all that, and when you get older you do look back a little bit, you know. I’m thankful to my parents and to all the sister for allowing me to dream. Otherwise I wouldn’t be sitting here talking public. I think it’s important to emphasize this concept of a dream because these days with Google and YouTube and all the social media, you can always see someone that embodies your dream.

12:19 Look, this guy did it, this person, this, but back then you really couldn’t see it. You couldn’t visualize someone doing this. Maybe there was a magazine, or maybe if you caught something on TV before it moved to another show. You could see it, but there wasn’t a lot of point of references, not a lot of kind of people that could mentor you along the way. I mean, you really had to kind of sell this from scratch to your parents.

12:42 Yeah, and maybe that was an advantage that I didn’t know, maybe sometimes an advantage that you can’t Google things. I had this discussion with my second son. He’s 19 now, but a few years ago he obviously has a weather map, and then you know, he looks at his phone like most 16-year-olds. And this dad were in London, it’s raining today in a look at the sky, and I said, it’s blue skies, anybody? No, no.

13:08 In my ad on Google, on my weather app it says it’s rains, it rains in London. I said, son, look up at the sky. No, no, no. Google is right. It has to be right.

13:17 And I’m thinking, son, you using your mind now? Was standing in under underneath the sky and it’s warm and it’s sunny, and he looked at me and looked at his phone. He said, well, I don’t understand. So younger generations to grow up with this, everything they read on the Internet, they believe is true, even though they have never been anywhere. I think that’s a problem for the younger generation.

13:40 And so when I was fifteen, I couldn’t Google, and I couldn’t find out about this and that I had to do it to believe it, and I think that gave me an advantage. Hmm, interesting. So by not knowing anything it doesn’t restrict you. You just think, I want to win Wimbledon. Yeah, and it was almost support where I was too young to know that I was not supposed to win Wimbledon.

14:03 If you imagine a seventeen-year-old right now wheezing the semi-final is about to break my record. He gets, he gets from the whole world. There’s so many messages that what he’s about to do will be a record. Therefore he might, are going to do it because he gets nervous. Oh, he gets, it feels depression, all that.

14:19 When I did that I hardly spoke English. Yeah, there was no internet. I just went about my things, and all of a sudden I win the tournament. So anyway, it was easier then, then it’s now. Okay, I mean, in football you see you talent at 17, 18 year old, then in a big block, a big clap wants to buy in for a dollar, 100 million per 100 million pounds, for 17 years.

14:41 You know, most beginning, but this is the world we live in. What does that tell you when people are spending that kind of money? Yeah, yeah. You lose you lose your borderlines. You lose value for things.

14:52 You have no idea for concept or time, because everybody tells you what’s right and what’s wrong. It’s almost like people live in the internet reality and then kind of their own reality, and back in your day all you had was your mind, and now given by my parents, and my education, and my school, and my friends. But again, growing up in, you know, West Germany, per, you know, to drive to Frankfurt, which was to close at the airport was like a big deal. Now you don’t even think about, you know.

15:21 You go to the airport and you fly from A to B, you know man, is it again? It’s different times, and you take things for granted now that they weren’t they weren’t certain print. Hmm, looking back on that 13, 14-year-old Boris, what was that guy like? And you know, how were you able to put all these pieces together? You know, to make it to Wimbledon at 17.

15:45 I mean, you know, I would guess that one left instead of a right turn for a few of those years might have stopped that happening. Yeah, I was always involved in sports in general, you know. Flute tennis was the number one spot, but up, a football, basketball, I swam, I ski so my parents allowed me to do various different sports, and I, my trainer even then said, don’t, don’t become a once, poor Didion, you know, you have to practice your whole body. You have to practice your mind, so, obviously, you have to be careful not to get injured, but you have to do that anyway.

16:16 So I was allowed to to participate in very different sports, and I think that also gave me the joy of playing tennis, because I wasn’t playing every single day for five hours, and everything that mattered was tennis I think it would have tired my mind a little bit. My fascination for the sport, so, again, looking back a great coaching environment, you know, through the Federation. My local coach, she was named Boris as well, and he was from Yugoslavia. Again, back in the day was called Yugoslavia.

16:44 Now you go, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro. Where is he from? Well, back in the day was from Yugoslavia, right? And I think that made it easier for transition it made it easier to go from juniors to the seniors. Yes, at 16 I asked my school principal for two years leave of absence, because I wanted to become a professional sportsman.

17:05 Now, in 1984 there was no such thing as a professional athlete at 16, and so the school principal looked at me and said, are you sure? I mean, what happens, you break, you, me, your ankles, or what happens if you don’t win? And I was that’s true. But I was told I was pretty good. Then I’m one of the best units already, and so we just wanted to give it a try for two years.

17:25 Let’s see what happens. The same principal asking for an interview a few weeks after Wimbledon, where I just one of my first time. And then, you know, came to the school. There, thousands of fans outside, television stations everywhere. And for, wait, but he must have missed it.

17:42 So for 30 minutes he would still convinced me to go back to school in case the tennis didn’t work out. So I told him, listen, I just wanted a little tournament in the north, and in London called Wimbledon, and so fights going very well, but I come back next year for you. And then we have this conversation again, and then obviously he got the message. He asked me a few more questions, so forth. Though it didn’t occur to him that I just became the youngest one but champion, right?

18:08 Because he wasn’t on the Internet, he was like the sport. Didn’t like tennis? No, no shame on him. I just had more important things to do, you know. You can’t blame him.

18:16 It was just those were the times, you know. It were you an airy and arrogant kid? Were you difficult? I hope not. I don’t think so.

18:30 I always liked my sport because of the competition. I’m a competitive guy. I like to, I like to play, and and for me, yes, you know, the prize money was good, but at 17, 18, money didn’t matter, and even a trophy didn’t matter. It was, well, half beat the other guy. That was great.

18:48 And so that was always my incentive in anything I did. It was, and I want to get into the fight. I’m like, and it didn’t match, and let’s see what happens. That’s the reason I played. And what is it about tennis?

19:02 Why is that the sport that fascinates people and allows you to go in and beat another man well, first of all, it’s one-to-one, which is difficult at times, because in football, I even when, if you can’t get changed by the manager after 75 minutes. In tennis you have to play the first ball, and you have to play the last post. So it’s all your responsibility, which I must have liked, otherwise I wouldn’t have feel comfortable. I felt that it was in my hands, and the only thing I had to do was beat the other guy across the net.

19:38 Now that’s easier said than done, but something within me felt comfortable in this one-to-one situation, even now. And I don’t, I don’t mind, you know. I’m enjoying this conversation, sort of, the tennis match, a little bit, and it’s one-to-one, and I love my teammates, Davis Cup, and I love to be in a team, but even in a team, most of the time they would make me the leader, because I’m supposed to hit that winning shot. I’m supposed to hit their penalty, and I think it’s just something within my DNA that feel comfortable doing.

20:10 That’s not something I I want to all the time, but it became natural then, and it’s natural now. And why tennis? I mean when you look at tennis, it’s such a strange game. Like, if you, if aliens came down here, I’ve looked at all of our games, they’d be like, okay, you’re on grass, you wear white. Yeah, there’s this net.

20:29 I mean, this is something that was created centuries ago, right? It was real tennis. I originally, there’s a court actually by the Chelsea Harvard things they have one of the few real tennis, and they used to play it in Pall Mall, and they cater to knock the ball off roofs of buildings, and then it became lawn tennis. Right, now why does it such a popular sport? It fascinates.

20:48 Well, at the Queen’s Club they have real tennis courts, though, in a smaller racket, much smaller, called different rules, and then it was originated, believe it or not, by the French, because it was called the pom-pom apple, some tennis, one apple. Sometimes you can say it’s the same thing, even though it doesn’t taste the same. So that’s how it was, which made it, and then the English took it over, and it became real tennis and even now you have competitive real tennis players too.

21:16 So there’s a tool around the world. Obviously, it’s not that televised, and it’s the prize money. I’m sure it’s different, but you still have the game, and it’s a complicated game. Yeah. it’s a game of skill, tactic, strategy.

21:29 Yes, you have to be fit, and you have to play a long time. But it’s a very mental game with many rules, and thankfully it became one of the most popular sports in the world, but it’s a complicated game. Yeah, that’s the real tennis. Nobody, even tennis now, I mean, you know, the way they count 15, 30, 40. Why, why not one, two, three advantage Federer or break point Nadal, and all these names for things.

21:58 Unusual then you have an umpire, blinds man. Obviously nowadays with technology you have the Hawk-Eye, and so forth. Then it’s the only sport in the world where, doing the exchange, the people have to be quiet. You think why? 10,000 fans and federal, it’s a great return, and chocolate, cheese adoption.

22:16 You want a plot while they’re playing. Now players are bothered by it. You can screen before and after. Why? And no spore tester, for example, but those are the rules.

22:24 Very English isn’t it? It’s very English, very sure. And then with the white, I, I wish there’ll be more tournaments with white, because it just looks better. Some of the manufacturers are overdoing it with their style and the coloring, and the shape of the shirts, and discouraged for the ladies. I think, debut, they should be lot stricter than what they are now.

22:50 But this is a sign of the times, you know. It’s called democracy. Like, Wimbledon is still all-white, right? It’s dated, stuck to the rules, and it’s a thing. The rule is 90% white, so if the coloring is a bit dark, or if the socks are not completely white, I think it’s okay, but I think the rest of the, you have to be white.

23:09 Okay, which I like. On the grass, on the green, it just looks better. It’s just a nicer picture. Look better, it’s also a performance art. I mean, everyone is watching you, and you always like that aspect of it, right?

23:23 It comes with the territory, you know. The tennis court, it’s sort of, sort of, theater play, where you have a stage, and there’s two performers, and then the audience, and you also play for the audience, or it’s very important, and if you play in front of an empty stadium you don’t perform as well, even though maybe millions are watching on television. You don’t see that. You don’t feel it, so you want to feel the audience. You want to feel the applause.

23:47 You want to feel it, the people reaction to it after you hit a double fault, so players are depending a lot on the atmosphere of the fans and the spectators, so it’s even, it’s a full house, and you’re good performer. You want to play better for them. How can you get the audience on your side by playing real, by being honest on the cold, you know. They quickly get when you fake something, or when you complain too much, and when you don’t give an effort. I think dady and then obviously you have a reputation for it as well.

24:19 So once you get to a final, if we’ve won five or six times already. So the buzz around the clock is, that what this guy always tries hard at, these guys is diving or this guy is this and that. So that plays a role, because you want the audience on your side, because they they make a difference. It will help you in that game, they do. And you were known in the, in like those 80s games for just going for it, right?

24:42 Diving on the court, that was the aggressive stuff. Yeah, it was that part of that, because you wanted to win? Was it also, you like to be a showman? Like, well, no I think a thing of fundamentally, I wasn’t the fastest mover. I was big and heavy, so it’s somewhat about it.

24:58 Just couldn’t get there with my feet, and I didn’t want to give up, so I had to find another way of reaching ivali, which, which was then, I would die myself to the left, even on the baseline. Sometimes it just couldn’t let go of the ball. And tell me about the mental game that must play mental tricks on your opponent when you are diving for things that they just assumed were gone, and then, who is this kid? Who is this kid? I can’t beat him.

25:22 How do you start this whole mental game? And does it depend on the player you’re playing? And this is always something you focus on when I was very young. So I don’t think there was a strategy of impressing the other guy by diving for it. I think it was, it became natural.

25:37 And then obviously after you win, if you feel like that worked, then you talk about with your coach Urbani, talk with other players, and they tell you well, it’s difficult to play you, because you’re such an imposing figure. And I said, why? I’m just being myself. I just want to be within and be myself and do the best I can. What, that alone is imposing, and also the fact that when I coached, no, no, you know, her talk to juniors.

25:59 Is that always play until the end. Most players today, they’re down a set in a break, they put their shoulders down, the record is down, and they have given up already, even though there’s another 20 minutes to go. So, you know, the great players of today they always finish the match the way they have started, and you never know what happens at the end. The guy gets nervous. You get, it could call, there’s an injury, who knows, you know.

26:21 There were a lot of matches I won at the end where I thought I couldn’t at the beginning, because I was able to finish the match on my own terms and I think that’s about attitude. It’s about concentration. It’s about what’s the purpose of going to the court, is when the match, and you keep your game face on the whole time. In between breaks, I was temperamental. I mean, I escaped around abroad records.

26:42 The older I get, the more even keel I became, the more relaxed I became, but if you’re really frustrated as a tennis player, you can’t hold it in the whole match. So, you know, if I coach today, I said let it out one time, if you break the record, you’re gonna be fine, and I’m sure your record company is unhappy, but you gotta go back to concentration afterwards, because obviously you want to finish the match in your own terms. So at 17, 18, 20 I was a bit more temperamental than I was at 25.

27:09 Okay, and you’re all swearing in German – which is, I learned to pick up the English language when I played the likes of McEnroe and Connors, believe me, and they taught me things that nobody ever taught me. So I quickly used some of the words that they use, not really understanding what it means, but it sounded cold, so that’s why I started to sweating. Okay, I want to get to those guys definitely shortly. So, 17, you, that the tournament you watched as a kid on television, you’re at Wimbledon, and you win, and the whole world is watching.

27:41 And like, again, just to kind of educate people here who were born in this internet generation, you know. Now with the internet you can watch anything you want. Back then everyone was watching a few things, you know. Like during Wimbledon season, pretty much most of the world is paying attention to this thing, so you know, you’re being watched by tens of millions. No, that’s an incredible fame moment that I don’t think anyone can understand today.

28:05 I don’t care how big you want to gram, you’re never as big as you were when you win. Women know, they say the numbers of the Wimbledon final was eight hundred million, eight hundred million watched around the world. I’m talking Commonwealth, he thought, you know, India, I took Asia, II telegraphic, can’t you talk, and you only had it on one or two channels? It was a BBC One. Oh, it was on, you know, the number one channel in that particular country, because there was no private TV.

28:30 There was no paid TV. There was no internet TV. Think about it, it was just two on Sunday afternoon. What he wanted to do, well, it was a women’s final, if you like the sport you were watching it, and so, what, millions around the world. So you can’t even imagine.

28:43 If I wouldn’t know beforehand I would probably got nervous, but that was the beauty of all the innocence. Use is that sometimes you’re not aware of the things you’re doing, and I think that is taken away from the younger generation today. Is that they’re too aware of what they’re doing and the consequences of it. And so I think we had it easier than the 19 years of today, because you really couldn’t conceive of all this stuff. You were allowed to be free.

29:11 You allowed to make mistakes, you’ve allowed to express an opinion without being slaughtered a minute later on Twitter, right? Okay, and that makes people different, makes them behave different. Good, makes them, makes them restricted. It makes them reserved. It not makes them express their real opinions because they’re afraid of the reaction, right?

29:28 You once said pressure only affects people who find they’re not prepared. Is that the way you felt at Wimbledon? Did you feel the pressure? I, I’m fascinated with the word pressure, because I never understood it. Anyway, you know, traveling around the world, obviously have a different idea of pressure now than back in the day.

29:46 But for me pressure, people have nothing to eat, nothing to drink, in can’t sleep at home. They have real pressure. The rest of us are born in the lap of luxury, sometimes it’ll be better, and sometimes a bit worse, but we always have a bit bed to sleep in, and food, and then water. So, and even back in the day when I was playing, my obviously I was younger, so I felt why pressure? I can only be the best that I can, and if that means I would lose that match.

30:12 I’d be pissed off about it, but I will not, my life isn’t going to change because I have no regrets. Sometimes, sometimes, just somebody better. So the pressure, opponent was taken away from that, because I can only do the very best that I can, and if I if I lose, I lose. Thankfully, about one more than a loss, but it’s, there was the attitude that always, that you have to have that in tennis, right? Because there’s so many matches.

30:35 If you try to remember one or get caught up in one. If you live in the past you’ll never be able to be a champion. No, you have to, you have to be on that moment, you know. It happens now, now means, now means the net’s next point, now means 15 laughs. And again, there are ways to prepare for it, you know.

30:52 You have to concentrate, and even that needs practice, you know. You can’t have a thousand things on your mind, and getting ready for one final. So you’re on your own, confinement with a small group of people, and you mentally prepare what’s about to happen, really, of finding your own concentration coolness, stillness. You want to be within, and then obviously you’ve already, you want a cup of matches, so you must be doing something good, you know. It’s not like the first match, you don’t know where you are, so you already feel good about your performance.

31:23 A day just got it, you know. It’s something to do with breathing techniques, and just, you know, now we call it, you all go back in the data, called stretching, and it’s some ways of finding your inner sanctuary. Is through that, because once you get there you are yourself, and then hopefully you’re good, and you figured this out on your own. You were doing your own version through books, through coaches, through other players, you know you always find ways to improve your concentration, and your ability to play well, and a lot of it is you did, you visualize the win, or you went out?

31:56 Yeah, it’s part of the concentration, to think about that, lifting the trophy. Is think about, you know, the match, and just mentally getting fixed within the match already, even though it hasn’t started. Wow, wow. All right, so you win it 17, go back to school. You convince the headmaster that maybe you, another year, we’ll see if you can make it.

32:15 It’s a true story, and the thousands of people found at school, but he was an intellectual. He was, that a German thing as well, conservative thing maybe a little bit, maybe, you know. Yeah, okay. So he saw the 10,000 people outside the school, said, okay, we’re gonna give you another year, Boris. You can focus on this.

32:31 Yeah, you come back to Wimbledon at 18, win again, you know at this point you’re thinking to yourself, I got this thing wrapped up for 10 years well, for me the defense was bigger than the first one around, because he can’t imagine it is, 12 money between everybody there, mother thought that was the flash-in-the-pan, the famous 15 minutes. It was impossible to win in 17. It will be definitely impossible to fan at 18, because I still would have been the youngest so everybody doubted, including my coaches and my friends, and they prepared more ready.

33:06 Don’t be too upset. Let me, let me play. Okay, that’s not that you want to hear from your cousin, right? What you want to hear, so we, this is a unique situation. Yeah, okay.

33:15 Yeah, was it then that I, you know, talked to my coaches, or listen, guys, I mean, let me just do my own thing now, let me, you know, you can come to the matches and you have me organized, a car and everything, but let me just be me, and then after the tour, mins over, I would listen to you again, and and you know, next thing you know, I’m gonna match, the match I played well. I mean, the quarter-final, semi-final, and then you, you know, in my case, I went on to defend it, and so ever since that moment I trust in myself. Okay, if things get rough, I concentrate I try to focus on what’s the next thing.

33:56 Well the task at hand. What do I have to do to be better, and to get better, and that really cemented itself, winning it at 18 again, because that was maybe for the first and last time they’d have felt pressure. Hmm I know. You talk to people, look to people, and they give you these looks of, yeah, I mean, come on, it was impossible last year, but I certainly, you won’t do it again. So there’s nobody that believes in you.

34:26 That’s tricky. Yeah, but then once, you know, you do it on your own and you’re successful, you never doubt yourself. You never thought, is oh yes, Palace all, yes, why Wimbledon? Why is it such a fairy tale for you? it was the only tournament worldwide that was always televised in Germany, and young Boris, grown up in West Germany, loving the game of tennis wanted to watch a tennis match, and the Wimbledon tournament was always televised on ARD which, said to have, which, other, you know, BBC One, BBC Two, one of the two largest channels back in the day.

35:02 And then on Sunday afternoon, on Friday, whenever the matches were time, Boris was sitting there with his parents and his sister and would watch the Borg and McEnroe, you know, when the tournament, so my dream started then, saying one day I want to win this tournament. And what’s it like to go there for people that never been, and what’s it like, spend two weeks there as well. That’s another thing. But wait, what’s magical about it? Because it, I’ve been then it is.

35:26 There’s something special about that place, if you, if you like tennis it’s sort of the, the, holy church, you know. People talk differently. They look differently. The whole place is not commercialized yet, or in a way that it doesn’t come across, of course they have to, sponsors, but you know, the colors green, and we, let you know, stronger form of pink is there. It’s been around 150 years.

36:01 It’s the oldest tennis tournament in the world. It’s probably the most famous, because of it. They have their own rules. They’re different to all the other tournaments, and it’s compared to the Masters, which is this week. It’s sort of the Augusta in tennis.

36:16 If you call it, you know, without a sport, it’s the World Cup of tennis. Unfortunately it happens every year, but it’s a life-changing experience once you get the chance to play it, and then luckily to win it, you know? You can be US Open champion, it’s amazing, a French Open champion, and you know, even number one of the world, your Wimbledon champion, you in a different club it is. And it is very British, I would say. If you want to get a good feel in a way that’s maybe hard to describe.

36:49 What is the best of British? Go there, it feels different, like you said. You see, I think three sponsors, barely using a few logos. Yeah, everything is done, you know, right? Everything that’s done well, well, they have they have gone with the times, meaning they, of course, have, you know, changed the club.

37:09 Now the locker room there’s a new centre, no new roof on Court Number One day. They have adapted with the time without selling themselves out, and that’s difficult, because, you know, I’m sure they have, you know, office left, right and center. So, so they, in order to stay within the times, you have to adapt to it a little bit, but on your own terms and I think they found the golden middle of doing that. I mean, just look at the Royal Box. A lot of royal boxers want to be about boxes in sports.

37:40 Look at the Royal Box on a women’s final, it was unique. I mean, is it, the ticket you want to be? Now can you buy this ticket? No. Can you give this ticket to somebody else?

37:51 No. So you can ask, if you’re, if you get the pleasure of being at it, who you coming with? You can’t come with your spouse, or your partner has to be your wife, and then if she has had the flu on the Sunday morning, you can’t give this ticket to your chart or to your system. It’s just you then Federal’s beautiful room. I have friends in St. Barths, any amount, so I go to the committee and to the members, and the Chairman.

38:22 I said, well, you know, Boris, what’s up? But I have to tell my friend that at least that went to you and asked you. He would offer you, I don’t know what, for the charity ones, and said this ticket is not for sale, and he means it. It’s a beautiful thing, I think. So all right, so take me back.

38:36 You’ve now won twice, defended your title. You go back at 19. What is the world see, and how is Boris different than at 18 when you, when you had this question before, he said, obviously including me, I thought I have this now for years to come, and that was obviously a foolish mistake, because nobody wins it all the time. And then a very following year at 19 I had a pretty good year. In between, I lose two in the second round to an Australian called Peter Doohan, a qualifier, on court number one, and that was that.

39:17 And of course I was upset, and of course I didn’t beg, well, and then, you know, things didn’t work out, and I remember I was going to the press conference after, and then, um a big, big look from all the journalists, and what happened was wrong. And I went, well, I lost the tennis match. Nobody died. Peter was bad on the day. That’s it.

39:43 Yeah, how was it possible? And you’re supposed to be a defending champion, you’re supposed to win it for five years, is that you’re absolutely right, but I wasn’t good enough today. What can I tell you? I lost a match. Nobody died.

39:54 Didn’t lose the war. I lost a match, and I think that was equally important to me then, defending at 18, because it puts everything in perspective. It puts, you know, my performance is impacted in perspective. It puts the sport, tennis, winning a losing perspective, and that helps along the way of saying sometimes even you, Boris Becker, lose at Wimbledon. Welcome to the club.

40:22 You’re human, you’re a man, you’re not always perfect. That’s tennis tennis, maybe life. It’s just a message, and it’s just a message for everybody out there, is that, you know, you’re not always perfect. You know, people make mistakes. You always meet somebody that’s a little bit better on the day, that doesn’t mean that you’re not good, just as somebody was a bit better, and it’s just part of life, and I think I learned this lesson early.

40:52 I think it prolonged my career as well, you know, if you all the time when you get, you know, you’re thinking about what’s the next card, cuz I’ve been winning already everything, so the reason I did play until I was, you know, in my thirties, it was because I didn’t win everything after that. Hmm, good perspective. Most people that are so intense about something also take it so hard, and you know that can ruin them, you know. And I think it’s a rare combination that makes for great tennis players, and maybe great life players.

41:21 Yeah, yeah. I mean, it’s a fine line. Of course you want to give everything, and of course you want to win, but even that you have to see in perspective, you know. You have to, you know, Michael Jordan was asked, that’s the question. You know, how can you, you know, how do you know that you’re gonna hit another 50 points tomorrow?

41:40 I said, I don’t, because I can’t chase the game. If you chase the game, you lose. The game has to come within, and they have neither score 50 points a night, set score 15, because it’s just the way it is, and the same thing I look at tennis. You can’t always play perfect. You have to play good enough to survive the match, to get to the next day you mentioned learning some great new English language phrases.

42:05 Mr. John McEnroe, you had an epic battle with him at the Davis Cup, and there was a lot on the line there, because you’re defending your country in the Davis Cup, you’re playing in New York City against John McEnroe, and now these days most people know John from commentating, as you as well. But back then it was a different John. What was it like to play someone like him, and how would you describe John back then to someone who doesn’t know? Well, John McEnroe was one of the most talented players of all time, very, very successful.

42:36 He’s all right with a very unique style, but mostly he was known for his temperament. You know, back in the day he didn’t have the microphones on the court, and players actually still talked to the umpires, in, and you know, in their own kind way, and even to the other players sometimes. So John was very verbal with him and everybody around him, and that was his trademark, and that was his intimidation factor, in a way. And so he got fined a lot. You know, he did lose a match, but because he couldn’t finish it, it was fine by the umpire, because of foul language or obscenity or whatever he was called then and but that was his thing.

43:19 You know, people forgave him because of the quality of his play, and it did settle down at the end of the career and became bit comma, but I mean, he’s a New Yorker. He was born and raised, him, and had, I mean, you’ve ever been there, you know what they’re like, you know. So he was, he was a typical New Yorker, and he, he lifted out on a tennis court, and yeah, obviously he had a, you know, great secondary, you know, as a, I call him the best commentator in tennis because of his unique way of talking, if looking at a tennis match, and also allow of expressing himself.

43:52 He, he speaks, you know, almost, obviously the language is a bit better, but almost the way he spoke on the tennis court, and I think that’s what people like about, he’s real. He says it how it is. And nowadays a lot of people, you know, in this, this PC world we’re living, and nobody can really say it was a double fault. They say, well, the second serve wasn’t as good as yesterday. I was, I was gonna use another word for it.

44:16 Tamo thought so. I think that’s his quality, and, and, and I think the people enjoy less. You don’t. It’s also very intense, and when he came to Wimbledon, yeah, everyone was cringing and so in a weird way, it’s kind of not what you were used to, because very few opponents would do that. Yeah, yeah.

44:32 Tennis, tennis was, it is always a very classy sport, you know, with, if, to play within the rules. Well, he broke the rules every time we played the match, and and by what could you do? It was the number one player in the world for quite a long time, so you have to embrace him. For yes, it took him a while to be a member of Queen’s, and he’d, Wimbledon struggled with accepting him, but eventually they did, because it was just so good and so unique, and but but I think nowadays, if there does anybody similar to him, and I don’t find anybody, because it was a lefty the way he played, and the touch and the serve and the attitude and the, you know, his whole personality was so unique, and that’s why I mean he stands out.

45:16 He used to like break racquets, break glasses, argue with the umpire, yell at people, mutter to himself. You poor, I mean, if any of the athletes today would use 10% of the language of John McEnroe, there’d be five or six month every game but he wasn’t, where he was fine. It was fine, and I’m sure, I’m sure he couldn’t finish every year on his own terms, but I think rules were changed because of him, and then he said John. John said, well, I learned everything from Jimmy Connors, and then Jimmy Connors would say, I learned everything from Ilie Nastase, so there was always somebody before that that started this, and it was, she was just a different area.

45:57 Seventies was a lot wider than it’s now. Alright, so you learned some swear words as well yourself? Course. Okay, and how did you not let John get in your head when you’re playing in front of New York City, Davis Cup, vivid? Yeah, you’re representing Germany on American soil.

46:11 Yeah, and you know, there’s a lot of talk about Davis Cup nowadays, but back in the day Davis Cup was by far the most important team competition in tennis, and it was an honor to represent a country, and he wanted to do well even though your team wasn’t always the best. So my teammates were great, but ranking-wise, who were much lower, and we played America with McEnroe and Mayotte and Tim. I was a top 10 player, and then Flacon Seguso were the number-one toughest teams in the world, and we played in front of 15,000 crazy Americans, maybe maybe a hundred or two hundred and fifty Germans were there supporting us, and then it became a personal thing.

46:51 I took it personal, and it was the only way they know anyway I could play, but then we beat just, you know, he didn’t want to lose, and I didn’t want to lose, and then it became the longest match in history, and we had this discredit for quite a long time. We battled it out for six hours and 42 minutes, and they had no topic on Davis Cup, so once that was 15-13 yeah, the set was 12-10. I was back and forth, back and forth. I got the lucky, and I beat him in five sets, but that match would always stand out as our greatest, greatest of all time.

47:26 How do you keep going in our five, in our six, and how do you do it? You get into his own. I mean, obviously you do feel tired because of the atmosphere, and the in a play that they, we also wanted to show that there’s 16,000 that, that you can’t beat me. I’m gonna be stronger today, that just, just carries you, the holy motion carries you, then you, you find a way. You find a way to play at the point, another game.

47:50 Then obviously you see the other guy. John was a couple of years older than me, maybe physically struggling in the sixth hour, and that, that made you even stronger, and it drove you even faster, and then, then it became a satisfaction of beating John McEnroe on home soil, and then, quite, Ning, just 16,000, for a few minutes, just a few minutes. Did John say anything afterwards? He was not happy. He was not happy.

48:14 I don’t think he said a word to me afterwards. You guys later become friends. We asked, we have, and we paying good friends. You know, whenever he comes to see me London and woman, we always have dinner together, and the same thing goes when I see him in Manhattan him and his wife Patty are dear friends of mine, and their children, and a great couple, and we became very close friends. If you think we were the biggest enemies on the court, I mean, we were going after each other.

48:40 You can’t believe it, but time has come down a little bit. Come good friends. Now how is that? Because you both shared something special, because you both know like how each other feel at that time. I mean, you’re probably the only guys in the world that know what it’s like to be center court and never woman.

48:59 Yeah, maybe he saw a little bit of himself and me, and obviously I, I respected a great deal in, you know, his performances, so it’s it’s, you know, when an old King faces a young king there’s natural friction, and animosity, and just a lot of tension in the air, and I think that’s how we felt then, and nowadays we’ve realized there’s enough space for all of us. There’s, you know, it’s good now, but back in the day was very competitive, and it was one on one, and then he wanted something in it I have, and I wanted something that he had, and that made up great, great matches. Yeah.

49:39 Do you think in retrospect that it all happened maybe too early for you? You know, that if it had happened at 23 or 24 that you would have been different, or your career would have been different? I mean, when you give all this stuff to a 17 or 18 year old, it’s, it’s hard to process Yes and no. You know, I thought about it, of course. I my life changed because of that, and my career changed because of that.

50:05 Would I want to change the day? No, but it was definitely a life-changing moment, from a, a now known talented young West German to, in a mid-80s, the most famous sportsman in the world. I mean, it was just the fact, it was before Instagram and Twitter and all of that, and that carried a lot of burdens. It took away my privacy, that made strangers a bit judgmental about my next match, of my next whatever I did so that took away that part of my life, but I’m still standing.

50:41 I’m still here. I, I look back at it. I thought it was a tough lesson in life early on, but maybe earlier than, than too late, you know. A fraud, things happen for a reason and only much later realize why they, these things happen, and I, I’m a better man today. Forward the media love to go after flashy lifestyles, drinking, partying, all that stuff.

51:06 Is it fair? I know the German media had loved it as well. Do you kind of understand, they have to do what they have to do? Did you give them a lot of ammunition? Well, first of all, first of all, it was my life, you know.

51:20 I’m, I’m a father for children and we have this wonderful discussions always at home about you know, living your dream and of just doing what you feel is right, obviously within the roles, and then I’m you know, very anti-drugs. I’m very empty, losing control, and you know, if you drink too much and if you smoke too much, it’s, I’m very much against it in front of them. Now one is 25, and, and in it says, one day we’re discussion no longer, I says that I know that you smoke cigars and you know that I smoke the cigarette so why don’t you smoke together?

51:59 I said I would never smoke in front of you. It’s just my role. I will not show you that is good. So my father smoked cigars. Did he smoke in front of me?

52:09 No, we spoke about it. So for a long time I knew what’s right and what’s wrong, but it’s my decision, then when I’m an adult to take responsible for our life. So because I was successful and because I made my own money I could make a decision. The car was driving, the shoes I was buying, the flat I was living in, it was my decision to do so. So when people criticize my own decisions, I said, well, gonna go, go live your own life.

52:36 You’re not responsible for my life. So that was my attitude at 18, at Wayne, and it’s my attitude now. You know, I’m not taking any way from you, but you can’t take anything away from me. Mmm. Fair enough.

52:46 Pete Sampras he came as you were coming to the end of your career. What did you see in him, and you’ve had a famous match with him where you kind of decided that okay maybe this is the guy that’s gonna be the new guy, maybe the same way the McEnroe pass things on to you. What did you see in Pete, and how did you know in yourself that maybe it was time to move on? That’s a difficult thing to feel. Yeah, when I was playing Wimbledon and I trained the right way and I was healthy.

53:18 I always felt that on my best day nobody can beat me. When Pete came around that changed. I played him in the final and and I thought it was a great form of just beating Agassi in a semifinal. I was in my late 20s, that’s true, but I was still in good shape, and then he just beat me in straight sets without, you know, shadow of a doubt, and then, and I played him before and I knew he was good, but I didn’t think he would bring it on, on Ruben Senegal, which I would call my living room, and I made this statement that I’ve given Pete the keys to my living room, so he owns it now.

53:55 And for me there was the reason why I wanted to retire, because I played because I loved the competition, and I played to win, and I felt that when I was playing Pete, that there’s somebody and his best day and my best day on a woman center court, he would beat me, and that’s something I didn’t like, but it’s very hard as a fierce competitor to say something like that, but for you it’s very logical. Yeah, but I play to win. I don’t play to be part of it.

54:23 I don’t play to look good. I play to win, and if I, if I, if I feel like that is in my house where I was, you know, dominating for 10 years. A young king is coming, and I want to take one, take away the throne. And then he used to keep, that’s, that’s better beat me. You better be on your best, because otherwise I beat you, but he’s done that, and then I thought, you know, you have your great successor.

54:47 Well done. Tell me about Pete. He was quite. He’s quite a machine. There for a while, right?

54:51 Well the question always has to be asked. Who was the best ever in tennis? And naturally Federer comes to mind, and Nadal and Djokovic, and, and I’ve never played these guys, but I’ve played McEnroe and Lendl and Belinda, and then, you know, Sampras and Agassi, and for me in that generation Pete Sampras was was the best, because on his good day you can touch him from the surf. The physicality, he just just saved you all, all courts, girls, and you know, tennis, tennis always starts with the serve, the only shot that you control not your opponent.

55:27 He had the best service of all time in my opinion, because he, not, it wouldn’t lose a serve in a match. He wouldn’t lose it in weeks. He would win 7-6, 6-4, and he couldn’t touch you. Surf, and, and that’s how we start the game. You know, people Valley a lot now, but if you can’t get into a rally, if you’re always losing quickly on your opponent’s serve, how are you, how can you keep up the pressure of holding also?

55:50 So, so technically speaking, it was always very difficult to blame, because you were always under pressure on your ownself, because you know, you lose yourself. He’d win the first set of P, and then, then you’re running behind him and he was a quiet man. He stuck to himself. He was not, not in a gazebos. The opposite, but Peter was very quiet, very humble, very subdued.

56:16 He let his racket do the talking in interviews. It was always, you know, for short answers, because they didn’t want to talk about it. He said, you know, I just won the match, so what about you? You need me to answer? I’m the winner.

56:29 Yeah, I became friends with Pete. He obviously lives in California. We don’t see each other much, but I’ve great respect for him. Greatest of all time in my era he was you know, you have to, you have to mention Roger Federer. You know, win of 20 majors, you can’t criticize that, and also the fact that over about what, 16, 17 years winning with a number of different players makes him very special.

56:57 Pete only 114 majors. Now, now the, the argument is that back in, in our era you had more players winning Grand Slams and you can argue that, because maybe the competition was higher, or you can argue the top players today are better than the rest, so a lot of different arguments also back in the day not every major was, was equally important. A lot of players did better, so, an open there were times when, when three of the four majors were played on grass.

57:31 Now imagine if I would have played at the time grass was, want a surface. I’m sure with a one more than six, but in my case it was clay, was hard court was out. You know, it was different, so, so the meaning of winning a Grand Slam varies over every decade in every generation. Okay, you mentioned Agassi. What do you remember about him?

57:50 We’ve come the bad boy of tennis for a while, right? That was kind of image. Yes, yes, for a while. I mean, born and raised in Las Vegas had the long hair, talked about, you know, the conservative supported tennis. He’d be brought in a fresh air to it.

58:07 He probably, color, colors in that he had the earrings, and he had just a whole different style of playing and a personality, and, and I think, I think the combination in a Sampras and Agassi you know, black and white way transcended tennis into another, another way and because of him also we have gained a lot of new fans, younger fans, and it would play with, with cutoff jeans. You know, we’re talking about the waiting room button. So, so he was always trying to, in his early, yes, you know, play the rule, break the rules, break the rules within the rule, but obviously the foundation was always, is his performance, and the fact that he won, you know, eight majors ultimately, and I think you know, speaks for itself, but at first he was, he was a difficult guy for, for a lot of people.

58:59 He wrote a book, and in the book he said he hated tennis. Yeah, what did you think of that? Surprised a little bit. I, I thought that, you know, tennis has given him everything. It’s given me everything, so so you hate something that’s giving you so much.

59:12 It was a bit odd, but I think the book is called Honest or Open, both open, right? So he was open. That’s how he felt, so I respect that. Obviously it didn’t come across with many, you know, the tennis community, that you hate something it’s been so successful loving, you made money from, and all that, but it was, it was a very honest, honest and open book, and yeah, that’s it. Do you think there’s other players that are great at something that they, that hate it in some way as well?

59:43 Like they don’t like the thing that brought them to the dance. I think he’s a rare, I mean, there’s a difference between don’t liking something and hey, I think, I think there’s a big difference. You know, you can, you know, also lost something, or you like something to do, hating I thought was the wrong choice, award, I was, was his book. Okay, I ain’t saying about you in the book, did he, he did, he talked about me a little bit, and he had some stories about it.

1:00:13 Again, we were competitors. Okay we didn’t like each other much when we played. You know, he, we wanted something, and I hadn’t, vice-versa, so we, we did the best we could. You know, he, I was, I was sort of the biggest personality when I played, and then he came and he took over that metal, so I’m sure that’s something I didn’t like, so so it always became personal when we played, which was great drama and a great match to watch, missing nowadays a little bit.

1:00:38 I find nowadays everybody is very cool, very much like, sometimes on the shake hands, you don’t know who’s winning and was losing. Well, you saw who’s winning and losing, win a gazebo Becker, trust me, it’s strange, because we’ve seen other sports like boxing and mixed martial arts go to where it’s, I mean it’s all rivalry, Boris. I mean, these guys are having fights outside the ring. There are getting thrown in jail for things they do, whoever can talk the most rubbish.

1:01:03 It sells massive pay-per-view, and yet in tennis, which used to have elements that have now, it’s this lovefest, right, where everyone’s kind of hug it out. Why is that good question? I don’t like it. I think, you know, players obviously are competitors, and, and you can’t, you can’t tell me there’s Federer and Djokovic as friends. I just don’t buy it, and that includes Djokovic, but they, they speak nicely about each other, and they, you know, hug each other, and I think it’s, it’s, it’s chard friend Leah.

1:01:39 Now it’s a sport for the whole family is it better because of that? I’m not sure. I think, I think a little spice now and then, what would add to the annuity excitement the younger generation maybe is a bit different. There’s a young player from Australia called Nick Kyrgios that, that sort of takes over that, meant a little bit. I wish you would win a bit more, so it makes him more credit but I think, I think there might be a chance that we’re going back to a bit more open and honest competition, the way we had it, because a lot is at stake, and, and I don’t know how good of an actor everybody wants to be.

1:02:19 Yeah, story, sell. I mean, everyone wanted to tune in for Connors and McEnroe, and to see you, and you know, Agassi, and those really do sell, but also it has to be real, you know, and I could be real enough, and I just don’t think that Federer has the beef, and, and the doll have to be. I think I know. I think Federer, dough. I think he, he changed the game even there.

1:02:43 If you, if you meet Roger Federer, right, you wouldn’t meet a nicer guy. The guy is classy. He’s intelligent. He’s good-looking he gives interviews in five different languages. He does it for 16, 17 years, so that’s a role model, so everybody wants to emulate that.

1:03:01 I get that, but there won’t be another Federer in my lifetime, and I’m out of thinking in in tennis, so, so the next one coming will be different and everybody wants to follow a leader. Now already Rafa is different. You know, it’s nice and intelligent, everything, but he’s a much more aggressive on the card, a much more temperamental, and he’s, you know, he’s the, the bull from Spain, right? So he attracts a different audience. Now Djokovic, which is different too.

1:03:29 He’s the warrior from Serbia. So, but they were not Federer. Federer was the leader of the pack, and therefore everybody wanted to be like him, behave like him, speak like him, right? It’s like a brand. I mean, these, these guys have been around for so long.

1:03:43 You know, that you grow up with them. It’s this weird type of like oligopoly of tennis players we’ve never really seen before. Well, in the, in the 80s and 90s you were talking about brands and then usually you had the music stars. You know, the back, the day was called Puff Daddy and JC and then actors not so much, but musicians becoming a brand, personalized brand. Only, you know, couple years ago a sports man became brands.

1:04:12 You know, started with the food. Cristiano Ronaldo became famous branded. Messi. You can argue if he’s a brand or not. Maybe doesn’t want to be one, so so it’s more, it’s more into other sports, as certainly Roger Federer, he’s a brand.

1:04:26 You, if you didn’t think about the name you immediately have to picture and see what he stands for, which I think is good. Yeah, but that’s not gonna be repeated, and that’s good in your mind. Let’s get some new blood. It’s it was good while it lasted. I mean, he’s still, he’s still kicking an ass on a tennis court at 37.

1:04:43 I don’t know. It does it, but it’s, it’s there’ll be a new king, and, and with, with any new throne, and there, there be, there be a new way in tennis, and it would just have to be open for that. Yeah, I think there will be much more trash-talking. I think a lot of sports are going that way, but if you don’t win, you can’t talk. To Joe Cocker, you can’t talk to that, could back it up.

1:05:05 Yeah look at Conor McGregor. You know, when he wins he can talk trash, isn’t one in a while? He can still do it, but it has to pay. It’s borderline with him now. Yeah, he needs to win another fight.

1:05:15 I mean, I never met him, but I love what he stands for. I watched every fight he does, but a bit too much trash talking and not enough performing, I find, and, and so, so you know, hopefully he goes back to the Octagon, and, and and you know, when sits the next one, because I think that’s what he’s, he stands for, you know, and, and yes you have to brand out. You have to commercialize that, then you be no star. Woody, we have to sell, but ultimately your sports man, and you defined by your success.

1:05:43 Yeah, they’re also fighters, though, and they can’t necessarily do, you know, 20 fights in the year, because like a tennis person could play, so I think they have to pick their battles, to pick the battles, but we can’t have a boxing. I think, you know, Joshua I mean, what a heavyweight champion. We thought that, you know, Ali was the last superstar, and you’ve got this perfect guy you know, looks like a god and just wins easily. Again, you talked about the heavyweight in the box a couple years ago.

1:06:12 You weren’t sure why the Klitschko brothers were great, but they were different, so you got this, this guy, you know, out of, out of, out of London, and I’ve been a big, big fan of his, and I will watch every five, where you know, again it’s good for the sport. You have it, leader, like yeah, sports need stars, and Joshua’s got to be a few more people. Doesn’t he talk to me about coaching? Did you ever think you were gonna coach, and ever thought you’d coach such a high level player like Djokovic.

1:06:38 I, at the end of my career, I, I took over for the German Tennis Federation, the best juniors for five years, but I was still sort of playing and I looked after him, and I’m retired, and I looked full time after that with two coaches, and that’s where it really started. So in Germany they would know that I’m, I can do that, but he wasn’t promoted internationally and then in my, in my job as a commentator and as an analyst, I sometimes I speak like a coach when I do a summary of a match. I, I would say, okay, tactically, stunt that wrong and started good, and but the next match, and, and you know, so, so I talked like a coach.

1:07:21 So, so, um, obviously I was surprised when no one called me, and you know, he lost the number one position to, to Nadal in, in China, and then he, you know, we’re quickly said, well, would you want to coach me? You know, one or the Faunus, it, well, why number two in the world. I mean, you know, things that go well, and then we made the Monaco a few weeks after, with a long discussion about my point of view of his game, and I’m an honest guy. Now I was an honest guy, Dennis, and I’m, I speak from the heart.

1:07:53 It’s my opinion. If you don’t like it, you can tell me, but you asked me to come, so you have to, have to respect my opinion, and, and you know, you liked what I had to say, and then we started work together, and then you had to come. It became a very successful partnership, but it’s, it’s ultimately, it’s always down to the player if he allows it you know, some of these, these young superstars, they, you know, have won everything. There’s a lot of money in the bank, you know, so they don’t want to listen to the truth, because life is good enough, so, so I’ve really complement him of allowing me to say what I had to say, and for him to listen, because he didn’t need to.

1:08:31 He was already down an accomplished player yes. We ended up winning six majors together, and it was great for him, was great for me. It started with him you know, the thing with coaches is that he only as good as, as the player you’re coaching, or the team you’re coaching, and there’s a, there’s an unwritten rule and the coaching world, is that if the team win, it’s because of the team, and if the team loses, because of the coach, and that’s obviously not entirely true, but that’s the same thing in tennis, so you know, there are, they individual athletes, and, and, and you, you coach one player.

1:09:11 If you don’t like to play, you can’t change him to another one. You only have one. There isn’t a bench. You can say, okay, you’re not good today, I want to take the other one, or you injured, so it is very sensitive, almost, almost intimate relationship with that one player, because I have to know everything about him. We slept, how we ate, how he feels, how’s his marriage, house, really, everything matters, because he carries that on a tennis court that’s his mindset.

1:09:37 That’s his psychology. Does he feel the pressure? Is he upset? Is he, is he happy? In everything, so no one was able to share with me most of it, only because of that I was able to become a good coach.

1:09:48 Hmm is it difficult to coach a champion, someone who already knows they are number one, or number, yeah, yeah, it’s, it’s difficult because what are you gonna tell him that he hasn’t heard yet? What are you gonna tell me that, that you know he’s won the tournament before, so even if you think you’ve coached, umbrella and he loses the final, one goes to final, so it’s not as good, so the, the bar is very high, and, and I don’t think it doesn’t matter what I would’ve said if you wouldn’t have started winning again. It, I wouldn’t be a good coach because of the result.

1:10:21 Is it no? Tennis is a very result-driven sport, famous football, and, and it doesn’t matter what you do as a coach, and, and how good you are in a preparing everything. If the team loses, you’re not a good coach. And were you okay for that agreement where it’s, it’s, it’s a bit like trying to defend women at 18. Know it?

1:10:40 What’s the choice you’re in? It to win it. You’re in it, or you’re not. There’s no let’s see how it goes, and, and it was it took its toll on my life, because you’re married to the player. you’re with him, and you think about him, and, and you, you plan your year just to make, make it better, ultimately trying to win, but that’s the price you pay.

1:11:07 When again, I’ve often, it’s in that scenario, that’s, that’s a high price, but I was willing to pay for it. We ever do it again in the right situation. I, I’ve took over. I’m the head of the German tennis now on the men’s side, then I’ll be do now in the third year, and I’ve been mentoring Alexander Zverev, which is a young, young German player, and obviously he’s coached by Ivan Lendl since last September, but I, I helped him and his brother for two years, and then I was able to, I think, make them play better, obviously with his father and his whole entourage, but I think he, he really likes me when I talk tennis about him or with him, so that was good.

1:11:47 Would I want to do it again with just, with one player at the moment? Not but you should never say no. Let’s see what happens in the future. I mean, I was asked by a couple of women players, and I thought about it. I mean, I’ve met them.

1:12:05 We talk tennis, and, but I might explain, was that I don’t understand women good enough to teach them about tennis, so that was my excuse. You don’t understand women good enough for that’s good enough, they always complicated to you. I said, I don’t understand women, or women tennis player, if I could never be a good women’s coach. Okay, you had, have you’ve had a fascinating history with women across your life, and now you have these four wonderful children.

1:12:38 How do you put all that into perspective? And also, it’s always in the press. I’m trying to keep it out. They certainly try to keep it out, but when you when you’re such a famous father, sometimes it’s difficult. It’s not fair on them.

1:12:54 I don’t remember my life before my children. As I said, no, this is 25, and you know, they’re all the apple of my eye. They’re all very different. They look different. I think they’re all amazing, but most importantly, they’re all, all their own personality, which, which I loved.

1:13:15 When I was given, I was given a lot of freedom by my parents. I was giving the chance to make my choices, and I’m trying to do the same with them. Obviously, you know, they come from beautiful mothers. My ex-wives have been amazing as well, but I think it, the combination fits, and, and I, you know, for the rest of my life that is my most important job. I’m thankful that my 25 year old still thinks I’m relevant.

1:13:47 He still asked me questions about nowadays and opinions, and, and I hopefully I can keep their position as long as I can, because it makes me younger my 9 year old has different questions, and I can still answer to him as much as I can, so for me that is, that is my greatest joy. And if you ask me, you know, the Wimbledon trophies, the number ones, and the Gomez, everything. They, they be a little of what I feel for my children. How do you deal with some of the pressure that was put on you when the media goes after you, and does these scandals?

1:14:23 And yeah, I mean, I always wonder what is it like to be you somewhere and have to read a headline, you know, when it comes out, you know, having the child out of wedlock, and all this stuff is happening. You’re getting faxes from, you know, waitresses at Nobu saying, guess what, you’re a father. I’m always just thinking, like, what does Boris do that 24 hours? Like, how do you deal with that? Because that’s, that’s crazy.

1:14:46 I mean, I could drive somebody to suicide. Yeah, crazy. It’s difficult. You have to really go within, and maybe my tennis helped me, the way I looked at the women’s final of thing. Okay, what happened?

1:15:00 How can I deal with it? What’s the solution? And that’s how I dealt with it then, and that’s how I deal with it now, and it’s a, it’s a mindset. It’s, it’s complicated. It’s, it’s not easy, but you know, people ask me sometimes, why you always take the difficult road?

1:15:19 Who says I see more than one road? It’s not a conscious decision I take. It’s called my life. If I do, don’t do it on purpose. It’s, it’s, it’s, it’s part of my DNA.

1:15:33 All right, so I have to deal with that, and I’m 51 years now. I learned to deal with Boris Becker, and, and, and, and I’m proud of the results. You know, is it perfect? No. This is easy?

1:15:48 No. Was it ever easy? It was never easy. Kenna, the way I was raised, apparently upbringing winning. We were 17, leaving West Germany.

1:16:00 It was always a bit different than it was, so it’s just part of it. Then again, I’m a result-driven person, and we see these four, four children now, we’ll be amazed, and it’s so, something must have gone right with you live in the moment and you’re real. That’s like been the story of your life, right? Your president? No, man.

1:16:23 I live in the moment. I can’t out, but this is me, me, and that’s why you’ve been successful, and that’s why you’ve also been controversial. Okay, yeah, I mean, if I don’t have another example of it, right? I only have this one life, and I do the best to my, to my knowledge, and to my, you know, abilities and capabilities, and, and you know, sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s not so good, but it’s not, I don’t wake up in the morning say, I’m gonna mess this day up, or I’m gonna make a mistake on purpose.

1:16:59 No, it’s, I called an experienced, of course. You know, I have two things differently now than 10 years ago, 20 years ago, but the whole world is watching. So I mean, imagine, you know, there, what, almost 10 million people, under, imagine the whole world would watch what every person does, on, in town, every day of the year. You find some of the most crazy stories. You don’t even want to read about, right?

1:17:24 So that, in a nutshell, has been my life since 1985. And you personally don’t have a filter, do you? I am for now. I am a little bit. I don’t like the word wiser, but I’m a little bit more experienced.

1:17:40 I breathe in and out a bit more before I make a decision, or before I say something. I’m aware of things more now than, you know, before but ultimately I’m the same guy, you know? I am the same, the same course, the same personality is the same, the same Boris Becker you, you see on television. Yeah, you know, there isn’t all of a sudden skeleton that comes out and say, I’ve didn’t know that about you, you know, know. It’s it’s, it’s, it is what you see.

1:18:13 That’s who I am, and that’s why you’re such a good commentator as well, because you tell it like it is. I, I can’t help it. I mean, if somebody has a bad match, I would – it doesn’t matter who it is, I would tell Roger Federer really played poorly today. Why? I don’t know.

1:18:30 He’s human. You know, I would explain it afterwards. Now, most times I would not say that, because it doesn’t really play poorly, but if he loses in the quarterfinal to Kevin Anderson, and at the commentate the match last night, last year it was up 2/3 to love, and then he just, just became a shadow of himself. I did commentate, and I say these things. Is he upset about it now?

1:18:50 Because he knows I respect him a great deal, but it’s, if, if I speak in front of an audience, they expect in a realness, they expect honesty when it counts, of course, but, and you’ve commentated the Wimbledon finals for 10 years now, 15 years, 15 years for BBC, for German, and I do have an accent, and sometimes I make up a word. It doesn’t exist in the dictionary, but they can forgive me, I think, with a sense of humor, and, and that’s it. So I’ve been, being blessed to, for 15 years running now.

1:19:23 It’s very impressive. You must be very proud of that? I, I feel, I feel proud that the BBC has, has the confidence and has to trust now in me. I didn’t commentate for the three years that I was coaching, talk of its, so there was a break, and it was funny, because I always get an invite for the, the Royal Box for the men’s final, so in these three years I had to decline, because I said, since I can’t commit whether my player is gonna make it to the final, and they say, well, we know, but, you know, the protocol, we want to ask you, and then for the years that I was, I’m commentating, was the same question, so I said I’d like to come maybe for the third-round match, or when I don’t come at 8, but it’s, it’s, it’s usually, it’s, it’s I’m gonna comment through booth underneath and we have just this great, a team now with, with the BBC, and John is part of it, and Martinez part of it.

1:20:20 Then you know, Andrew Castle is my co-commentator, and, and Tim Henman is part of it, so it’s a, it’s a nice group of people, and we, we get along. We like each other, and we had this good banter. There’s trust. I mean, it’s live commentary in front of millions of people, and if you don’t really trust, yet again, next to you, it worries you, so there has to be, there has to be a bond, has to be a friendship, and I think we found a nice team together. Obviously, Sue Barker is the lead.

1:20:51 She’s the, the wise woman, and then tells everybody what to do, and it’s been like this since I started, so I’m, I’m honored, the proud to be part of the team. It’s exciting in the book you’re really honest about your own struggles with alcohol and sleeping pills, and I’m wondering if you have advice to give anyone listening, especially younger or people dealing with stress. Like, what did you learn from some of those struggles? Well, the sleeping curse story is really because of the traveling and the jetlag, and, and if you have to function at 9 o’clock in the morning or whatever it is, and you can’t sleep the night before, obviously it affects your performance, so so, you know, my message to my children is don’t, everything I did, do as I tell you, because I know firsthand what works and doesn’t work, in, as an athlete.

1:21:41 I was, I was fortunate enough that we were within a set of rules stating obviously doping was not allowed. obviously, you know, I thought it was not allowed, but then, you know, you grow out of it, you stop the sport, and you try various things. Thankfully I’ve never touched drugs, but I did have a bo2, and so I understand the temptations, and as I understand the effects it can have on their life. So I’m, if you want to talk to me about almost anything. I’ve lived in, I’ve heard it, some of it.

1:22:13 I’ve done myself, so you don’t have to talk to, you know, oh, don’t have to reach smart books. You can always talk to me, and as I come across now, there’s how I am. No drugs, because you’re, your parents raised you that way. I am NOT. I’m not a fan of control, of, of losing control.

1:22:30 I think that’s my fear. You know, I, I don’t like to be drunk. I don’t like to be drugged. I, I just, I’m afraid. My fear is losing control, so, so I think that’s the main reason why I, you, I never touched them.

1:22:42 Then I feel like now I be told it to try, right? Just a couple of the players on today, like the Williams sisters, what do you see when you see, you know, being this arena where they are now, what they’ve accomplished, and women’s tennis? I think both, both, but in particular Serena thing is, she’s the most important woman in sports, you know. She, the most important woman in sports, period. Yeah, yeah, because of her heritage, her culture, a race playing in a white sport, border, race in South Philly.

1:23:16 Yes, it’s good. I mean, if you, crazy story, movie about this, you think can only happen in Hollywood. So, so hopefully she continued successful for a long time, because it’s such a role model for so many young girls are there who have difficulties growing up, and I think that’s, that’s why she’s so important, and Venus as well. I mean, Venus, you know, number one, play a woman champion. She’s won a lot of stuff, so I think those sisters will be, will be sorely missed once they, once they don’t play anymore.

1:23:46 Yeah, okay, but it will be taken up by the new one. Chime stands, not so for now. When a one woman, it’s, it’s, it’s just part of nature, and, you know, the end, the mid-thirties now, and there’ll be tower or nothing to be playing in their forties, so there’s a new generation. Um, we have a good German girl called Angelique Kerber, you know, the current Wimbledon champion, so I support her a lot, but you have, in a Simona Halep from Romania, you have, you know, younger ones coming, obviously.

1:24:15 The number one player right now is a Japanese player. No, Naomi Osaka again, that’s a great story where she’s form. She’s mixed-race, a bit of Iat, a bit of Japan. We don’t wanna waste New York, so, so she has all colors that tennis needs desperately, I find, and it’s exciting. I think again, the, the evolution is wonderful in tennis, and then you think there won’t be any bigger than Serena Williams and Roger Federer will be made in 10 years, and I bet you that in ten years’ time we have two stars on each side that you go, wow, they’re amazing, they’re important for the sport, they’ve been winning so much, so let’s watch this base.

1:24:54 Well tennis always be relevant. Will it always be top five sports in the world? Hopefully I think it has a chance, because it’s played on all continents it’s a, it’s a unique sport, because it’s one-to-one. It’s, it’s a theater of dreams. It’s a real arena.

1:25:11 People, people can be a real sport. You know, different personalities, by display in Australia, in England, and in Africa, and in Asia, and in America, obviously, so it’s, it’s, it’s a truly international sport, and it’s, it’s, it’s in this time, times, it’s from men and women. We are maybe the only sport that has equal prize money. Maybe the only sport where you have a women’s final and a men’s final on the same weekend, sometimes on the same day. A pen not bad, actually.

1:25:43 And is this, are the rules gonna have to change, because the players are getting taller, the technology is getting better. Are we gonna have to make some changes to those age-old rules from the 10th, all a lot, especially on the men’s side. I used to be one of the tallest in the locker room. Now I’m average size, and I’m 6 foot 3. there’s talk, you know, I don’t know, the net higher, one serve shorter, coming.

1:26:10 I’m a, I’m a traditionalist in that, and I’d like to keep as long as possible the same type of rules, but it’s, um, it’s, it’s worth a discussion where we go in five years. You know, if everybody is 6, 6, 6, 7 obviously it’s a lot easier to serve. Potentially, too points will be shorter, so what do you change the ball to change you know, that’s, I think we should be open-minded about it. The same thing with scoring system. There there is a discussion of maybe shorten the sets to four.

1:26:41 I’m not a fan of that, or shorten matches. I’m also not a fan of that, because obviously with the long matches, those are the ones to remember. Those Adam wants, you know, five years ago, remember the five sets of forever, and the dollar limits, and five sets they played until it was finished. So shortening doesn’t always mean better, so let’s, let’s think of that. Okay, tell me about you.

1:27:03 Boys, what’s, what’s, what’s something you do every day? What’s the morning routine that you do that makes you who you are? Well, this morning I got up 7:30, took a shower, hopefully looked the part to be ready for, for our conversation, and I think every morning is a little different. I don’t have these teas nine-to-five routines, money to Friday. I have, you know, but my job can’t be done from home, on an office, so if I want to commentate a match from New York, I have to be at the US Open.

1:27:35 If I want to commentate the Davis Cup match and run the German national team. We’re playing in Frankfurt, have to be in Frankfurt, so it’s, I wish I’d be more in London. In our love London, then you know, not all of my children live in London as well. So my oldest son lives in Berlin, so I want to see him sometimes. So it’s, it’s, it’s because of it, it’s not of a choice.

1:27:57 You know, I’m not restless. I like to be in one place as long as possible. That’s why the month of June, July is the best for me, because it’s Queen’s. A woman that can be home for six weeks. That’s great, but that’s the only time of the year when I’m really home a lot.

1:28:13 The rest of it, I follow the tennis circuit and I follow my jobs. You still play tennis or any other sports? I wish, physically, I’ve been, I’ve been struggling. I’ve had injuries, you know, with my hips and my ankles, so, so if I, if I can still play, if I play a place with me, not against me, so I can stay in a corner. I can stay in the net.

1:28:33 I don’t want to serve anymore, because it’s not the same, and I don’t want to burst, but I, I want to stay active. You know, sport is important. In a workout I go to the gym, my bike, I swim. I try to stay in shape, but it’s more difficult now than, obviously, my thirties. Is that because the style you played?

1:28:51 You think those injuries, or the way they, yeah, there’s a price that I had to pay for playing so physical, of all the diving and all the other, you know, hustling. Yeah, and that, you know, that medicine in the 80s wasn’t as good yet. The word recovery didn’t exist in a nowadays when it gets, you get, you know, 25 degrees, people have the ice, the howls, and the, the umbrellas. Never think back in the day, you work all week when he called for, he’d, he’d break.

1:29:20 Oh, it’s hot, you know. So it was a different mindset altogether. I preferred these days probably my career would have been longer if I would have paid in the inner 2000 medicine is better. Doctors, a better, you know, that part of the sport has improved greatly that much technology, nutrition, yes. Have we started it?

1:29:41 I think even Lendl was the first professional in our days that, look, look, tennis more, more, and through, through eyes of a, of a performer. but now everybody has their there, and to ration a team there. Yeah if I were to ask five of your best friends, what, what is Boris’s superpower? How is this man, how is this man still successful, you know, today? What would they say?

1:30:08 I, I don’t know. I have a, have a great, a joyful life. I’m curious, I you know, I want to learn new things. I’m, I’m you know, I want to, I want to see my children grow up, and I want to have them make make the transition from, from teenagers into adults, to responsible people. Yeah, I’m full of life.

1:30:40 I, I like, I like to get up in the morning and, and then do things, so it was always like that. Okay, what was the best day of your life, and the worst day of your life? I haven’t had the worst day of my life yet, thank God. The best days, that mean you haven’t had your worst day, as in every day, you can, you can. Yeah, I haven’t had a day yet that I would call the worst day of my life.

1:31:04 No, I’ve had difficult days, and I have issues, problems, but I wouldn’t call it the worst day of my life. I think if I would, if I would lose control of my life, that would be difficult for me to take. The best days, the days when my children were born. I mean, I was present on three of them, and that’s just life-changing. Rules, who’ve ever been the birth of your own child, will agree with me that this is a, their life-changing moment, and, and nothing comes close to their stressful day for me.

1:31:48 I always find those days super stressful. I find, like, I’m, you’re not in control of hours. Yeah, but I’m not, believe in God. I believe in the goodness, and, and believing in my woman. So I, I’m, I’m both a superstitious, but I, I believe in the positive outcome, and therefore I go within, with good faith, and, and, and hope for the best.

1:32:10 And so far, what happened? What scares you? Things I can’t control. I, I’m scared always for my children when they travel, when they go abroad. They’re all explorers, independent people, so they should go without, without doubt and without fear, but that’s when I’m little scared, you know, my sister, my mother is still alive.

1:32:33 I’m again, it’s, it’s, it’s can’t control that. So, so one of these days, you know, my mother’s 84. one of these issue won’t be with us anymore. You know, my sister’s a couple years older, so I’m, I’m very close attached to my, my family, and yeah, that, that scares me. What would we be surprised to learn about Boris Becker, something you do that we might find you strange?

1:32:58 I honestly believe that the best is yet to come. I think I’ll surprise myself, and a couple of years, of some of the things that we’ll do. I have a few ideas. Obviously I can’t talk about it, but Prime Minister? No, no, no, no, no.

1:33:16 But you know, I’ve have my own, my own government called Becker Country. To govern is difficult enough, trust me no, but, I, I’m a, I’m a conscious human being about the changes the world is going through. You know, I do have a mixed-race family. You know, racism is a big problem, our society. Thankfully we’re allowed to talk about it now, and five years ago it was with hush-hush, difficult decision.

1:33:44 When you married your first wife, it’s not a decision. It’s called love. It’s not a conscious decision. You do. So it’s, it’s not, you know, it happens, but the instincts are, you surprised by the reaction or not?

1:34:01 I’m surprised about reactions because of color. I am colorblind. I don’t, I would never judge a person by, by the god he believes in, or by the color he carries. It’s not, it’s not, it’s not existent for me. Right?

1:34:15 And, and thankfully we’ll live now in society where we can talk about it, where we can criticize, where we can point these people out, and I think that’s great, and I think you think more power to people that they’re, too. So, so but on the other hand, you have obviously politicians who see it otherwise. So I don’t want to have to mention any names, but I’m sure we can think about them. So, so I think it’s important, because of the internet, is the information we can exchange, and the wording comes out about things that are not wrong, but it doesn’t mean you always have the majority, but I think we can have a vibrant discussion about these things, and then, then you know, we live and we learn.

1:34:50 Yeah. but you didn’t have that in the 90s? No, or eighties, there already. So it’s, it’s been with the word lives getting better because of that. You know, we can, we can, we can put the focus on things that are not, not done right.

1:35:05 Okay, so the best is, you have to come, is things from you not necessarily tennis related. I, you know, I’m, who knows? You asked me if I want to be caught, you gotta know I love to sport. In our love with the young players, I want to, want to, in help them to play better. oh noes, but I think, I think as a, as a man, I think there’s a lot more, more to come from me.

1:35:29 Did I expect as well? Thank to medical help and nutrition, and, and you know, we can look after ourselves, even though we, you know, fifties and sixties, and then you know, it’s important to me that I have a good quality of life. The older I get, I think that’s key, and so, because of that, there’s more to come. Hmmm. What keeps you awake at night?

1:35:58 I’m a good sleeper. I, I don’t sleep that much, but I’m a good sleeper. If I’m tired, I fall asleep. I’m not, I don’t worry too much. I mean, I sleep 6-7 hours max, but I’m usually good sleeper.

1:36:12 Are you worried about the state of the world? Do you ever read the news and think, where are we going, or are you optimistic that we can figure this out? I, I wore a little bit I mean, Europe has had no 60 years with peace. I think everybody takes it for granted, right? I don’t think my children ever knew anything but peace, but you grew up in the wake of the country that was just split.

1:36:36 Yeah, so I, I know what it’s like to have a country that’s been divided, Eastern, West Germany. You know, my parents also come from, for various background, so, so I’ve talked to my children. I make them aware that, you know, value your time or value your money, value your freedom, value the choices you have, because it’s not a given. Is not a given, and the, where the world is unstable at the moment makes me little nervous. The Brexit makes me nervous, America’s government makes me nervous.

1:37:09 You know, the strong leaders of the world make me nervous. thankfully with Angela Merkel we have a wise woman, maybe we need more women in politics, to saying maybe, maybe, maybe. That’s, that’s, that’s better, so I think we should talk about, yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m always reminded, just as an American living in London, that, yeah, I mean, a hundred years ago, you know, or 80 years ago, it was chaos here. Yeah, absolute chaos, and it’s so easy to forget.

1:37:42 It’s so easy for this, not that long ago. No, it’s not that long, not that long. yeah, I really know that we think everything when we have foregrounded. Yeah, and I defected. I could drive in the morning it to see you through, you know, not know.

1:37:56 I mean, a cyclist almost ran me over in the car. Is that’s another story no, it’s true. And I think also in America there literally is no physical evidence of that war, you know, because that country was kind of untouched. So I mean, there’s Pearl Harbor and that kind of thing, but it’s not always obvious what happened, you know, with everything being divided recently. So sometimes I think we forget, as Americans, where things can go, you know.

1:38:23 Yeah, and I, I’m a firm believer in you know, living together. I think we’re better for that. I, I don’t like to see the divide thankfully, we all have a bit of a different culture. We learn from one another, you know. I’m better because of you, and you’re better because of me, and, you know, so I don’t like the sentiment at the moment where we have to divide ourselves from, from our ancestors, and then originally from.

1:38:53 So there’s a whole, I find a whole new debate of, you know, where you’re from anyway. I mean, what’s your DNA? Where’s your family heritage? You’d be surprised, were you from, and once you understand that we are maybe from the same, you know, tree, we won’t fight each other that much. Yeah, well, sure.

1:39:11 Most definitely, Boris. I always ask a few questions to my guests at the end. I’m gonna ask you those questions. If I could give you a kind of a magic phone, and you could ring up the 20-year-old for us and give that young man a bit of advice. So you’ve already won the to willful dihn’s lost that when you came back, but you’re still young.

1:39:30 The world’s ahead of you, but you also know you’re not immortal. What would you tell him? I wish, I wish I had a, the 50-year-old, one-year-old Boris, call it 20 old, and I would tell him, son, take a bit more time for yourself. you’re in a, in a, in a race right now with with the show. Be the best you can be.

1:40:26 You know, you can only be the best you can be, but that means being honest, being truthful, playing until the end, because otherwise you don’t know how good you can be if you give up before. So for me to finish the match and to finish the story, it was always very important, powerful last part to that 20-year-old that’s watching us, that’s grown up in this crazy age of social media, political correctness, to a certain extent, always worried about what other people are saying, but also have the whole world ahead of them. Advice to them, very much about respect.

1:41:05 You know, it’s, it’s, it’s you are, you’re one in seven billion. Right? This is, you’re not alone, so we respect the others, respect different religions and colors and opinions without being afraid of forming your own. You go out there, explore, find out, because ultimately you have to find your own way in life. but that doesn’t mean there are not many ways.

1:41:33 You know, it is, there’s a, you know, it takes, it took more than a day to be wrong, right? So it’s a, it’s a journey. You know, enjoy enjoy the process of finding out who you want to be, where you want to be, what you want to do. It’s not, it’s not a race. Take your time.

1:41:51 Yeah, well Boris, I was one of those 800 million people watching you in San Diego, California, and my dad always loved tennis. I think he played when he was in College, and so I remember watching, and you know, as powerful moments, seeing these, you know, two men or two women battle it out on the court, but I think it’s more powerful that you’re still here and you’re still part of the game and you’re still pushing forward, because a lot of people have retired and they disappear, and it’s just great to see your spirit. What impresses me most about you is your ability to come back.

1:42:24 And I always say that when you see these fighters in the ring, and then the UFC, it’s like you see someone with a 10-fight win streak. It’s like, well, let’s see what happens when they lose. Mm-hmm, because that shows what a man is or a woman is, and so I love how you can come back from these things that would break a lot of people, and I like the fact that you’ve got big plans for the world when it comes to still bringing us together, and you’ve had some real experience, you know, with mixed-race children and all that, and I think that’s, that’s really powerful that you can talk about that stuff, seeing it from the ground up for 20 years, and I think that’s maybe one of the good things about all this internet stuff, that we can have those conversations.

1:43:04 So thank you so much for coming and sharing us your personality, and looking forward to what you’re gonna do in the future. Thank you very much. My pleasure.